How NOT to create MP3 music from cassette (Feat. Techmoan)
The 8-Bit Guy・13 minutes read
The narrator purchased a retro boombox with unique features but struggled to get the tape mechanism to work reliably. Despite claims of transferring cassettes to digital format, the boombox recorded at low quality with poor audio and lacked stereo separation.
Insights
- The boombox purchased for $29 had modern features like a USB port and an SD card socket, allowing for cassette transfer to digital format, blending retro aesthetics with contemporary functionality.
- Despite the boombox's claims of high bass and wattage, it exhibited poor audio quality, faulty controls, and a constant humming noise, highlighting the discrepancy between advertised features and actual performance.
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Recent questions
How much did the narrator pay for the retro boombox?
$29
Who did the narrator ask for help in recording the cassette?
Techmoan
What was the quality of the recorded cassette when played on the boombox?
Significantly degraded
What issues did the narrator encounter with the new boombox?
Poor audio quality, faulty volume control, humming sound
How did the narrator secure the boombox and keyboards on the wall?
Regular L brackets with bolts and nuts
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Summary
00:00
"Retro boombox disappoints with poor recording"
- The narrator purchased a retro boombox for $29, which had a unique feature of line inputs for recording directly to tape and using it as an amplifier.
- Despite spending almost 30 hours trying to fix a retro boombox's tape mechanism, the narrator couldn't get it to work reliably and decided to replace it with an MP3 player.
- The new boombox purchased for $29 had a retro 1980s look but also featured a USB port and an SD card socket for transferring cassettes to digital format.
- The narrator wanted to test the boombox's claim of transferring cassettes to digital format and used a high-quality cassette tape to avoid copyright issues.
- The narrator asked Techmoan, a YouTube creator, to help record the cassette due to his expensive recording equipment.
- Techmoan used a high-end cassette deck from the early 90s to record the cassette, highlighting the rarity of such equipment and high-quality cassettes.
- The narrator received the recorded cassette, played it on the boombox, and recorded it to a USB stick, but the quality was significantly degraded compared to the original recording.
- The boombox recorded at 22 kHz with a bitrate of 64 kb/s in dual-mono, resulting in poor audio quality and lack of stereo separation.
- The narrator conducted an experiment using a Tascam recorder to compare the boombox's recording quality, confirming the boombox's poor performance.
- Despite the boombox's claims of high bass and wattage, it had poor audio quality, a faulty volume control knob, and emitted a constant humming sound when plugged in.
13:37
Wall-mounted keyboard and boombox with L brackets.
- The brackets used to mount keyboards and a boombox on the wall are regular L brackets from a hardware store, secured with bolts and nuts to prevent objects from sliding off.
